The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered boasts remastered visuals, enhanced combat, improved movement, enhanced monster behaviors. A skill tree revamp, transmogrifications, new finishers, and so much more. The fantastic Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions are included. The upgrade is free for all Witcher 3 owners. Coming Sept. 29, 2026.
My strategy in The Witcher 3 is to always do the lowest-leveled quest, so I never end up too strong for any of them. However, through the course of Velen, I’ve gone from “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels above Geralt, guess I’ll do my best” to “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels below Geralt, might as well just get it out of the way.”
I also, as a guy, play girls in games, but mostly because it makes sense. Fallout 3 got me on that, where there was a perk (Black Widow or Lady Killer depending on your gender) that would grant you a buy/sell bonus against merchants of the opposite sex, and a damage buff against them as well. So I’d play a girl because most of the villains were male. The best early vendor is a woman, but she also gives a ton of quests, so I’m never really hurting for money by selling her stuff I find along the way. As soon as I got to Rivet City (the aircraft carrier in the south), I’d start focusing on the male vendors, at least until I had a decent amount of money. In games like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077, it just seems like a poor choice to play the guy. Like, they hired a male voice actor to record the lines for guys who couldn’t stomach playing a woman, guys who could never play Tomb Raider for example, but I feel like they went out of their way to get a really good voice actor for the female version. Saints Row is actually an outlier here since the guy can be voiced by Troy Baker, but Laura Bailey’s almost equally good, so it’s not like the female Boss is a bad choice or even a lesser one.
That sounds about on par for the witcher there, that’s mine too. That stupid riddles in the dark quest is where a lot of playthroughs go to die because of it’s completely wrong leveling.
I’m with you tbh, on the characters. Jennifer Hale did so so much better than Mark Meer in Mass Effect. Mark did great, but Jennifer just brought it to another level. Then cyberpunk. Holy shit, female V was so good right? I honestly have never played as male V because as soon as I get to the character creator I remember how good it is to play female V and I just can’t. The raw emotion she brought for that whole game was just perfect. That game was so great, could have you beating up a guy for catcalling you with a baseball bat to 5 minutes later you’re tearing up over the next gut punch. I’ve never played Saint’s Row, but I might just for Laura Bailey
In Cyberpunk, they used Cherami Leigh for V, who was probably best known for voicing Asuna Yuuki (female lead) in Sword Art Online. I think that series is “why” she’s V in the same way The Matrix is “why” Keanu Reeves was Johnny (a role written for David Bowie). But, other than The Dark Tower, I can’t really fit Idris Elba into that analogy, and that movie sucked (I liked it, but as a reader of the books… it was shit). The Matrix needs no introduction, but Sword Art Online also dealt with themes of being trapped in another world, much like Johnny was in the “soul prison”. Especially in the third and fourth seasons, where they got into time dilation (perhaps more popularly explored in Black Mirror and Interstellar). A roundabout way of saying, her resume made her appropriate for the cast.
The guy — I forget his name — sounds like he’s from New York. He’s actually a good voice actor, I don’t have a single problem with his performance, or at least I wouldn’t if Night City was New York City… instead of (near) Los Angeles. I think Cherami Leigh is from, or lives in, California, but her V voice is nothing like her Asuna voice. You can kinda hear it sometimes (like that awesome Corpo V line when checking into Konpeki Plaza (“did I ask you to think?” … “next time, just do as you’re told”)) but mostly, she’s speaking more lowly, more sultry. For a person whose personal motto is “love and light,” it doesn’t seem like a good role for her… but she killed it. (She also narrates the audiobook of the novel, which isn’t about the Johnny story, but rather is just set in the same world. No something. Escape? Excuse? Something like that. It’s a good story. At least as good as the Edgerunners anime.
As for Witcher 3… Wandering in the Dark? Tried to find the quest you meant. I’ve done that one. I didn’t mean the witch you can hook up with, I meant the witch in the swamp. But, I’ve done both. I recall it being annoying and I hear you on “where a lot of playthroughs go to die,” but it’s not why I took a break.